The emails formed the basis of Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics and the hacker Rawshark, whose identity is unknown, had been using the first account to release more.

Slater, who runs the right-wing Whale Oil blog which has been at the centre of allegations on Hager's book, had complained to the police about the theft of his emails.

He also confirmed this morning he had complained to the micro-blogging site because of "breach of copyright and breach of privacy ... both against Twitter's rules".

He also wrote on Twitter this morning that "@whaledump is dead... good job".

A police spokesman said the investigation was ongoing but confirmed they were not involved in shutting the account down.

A Twitter spokesman said it did not comment on personal accounts for privacy and security reasons.

Several Twitter accounts have emerged since the suspension purporting to be the hacker, but Fairfax Media reporter Matt Nippert, who was in contact with Rawshark for his story about the alleged links between attack bloggers and financier Mark Hotchin, believes the account @Whaledump2 is legitimate.

Documents dumped from this account, concerning apparent links between Carrick Graham and Slater and the liquor industry, are identical to those provided two weeks ago hacker Rawshark. The account has also released a number of other files.